Nightmare

Childhood Hauntings

"Can you stay? When I sleep?" I ask, my head on Rowan's lap as I lay on the bed. Moonlight peeks in through the thin cream-colored curtains obscuring the giant window next to me.

It's kind of dark in here, though. Not too dark thanks to the moonlight, but dark enough to make me not want to be alone.

"Yeah," he whispers, leaning down to kiss my forehead, clasping my hand in his.

"Can I braid your hair?" I ask softly as he plays with my hair.

"Sure," he smiles back, "but isn't it too short?"

"It looks long enough," I analyze his chin-length silver hair.

"Okay," he says.

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[~Rowan~]

"Sit still," Mavi tries to scold me, trying and failing to keep the laugh from her voice as she sits behind me on the bed, but it doesn't work. She's adorable, and I have to suppress a chuckle.

I try to stop fidgeting, but it's been ten minutes of redoing and undoing 'imperfect' braids in my hair because it's not perfect.

She pushes my hair to the side of my face and some to the front. I blow it from my eyes. "Do you really know how to do people's hair?" I ask her.

"No," she snorts. "I do ponytails, really bad messy buns, and I can do braids, but they're not that great because my hair isn't that long. I don't give two fucks about how my hair looks."

"You do know what you're doing, right?" I ask her cautiously, readying a stance and preparing myself to escape if she says no.

"Somewhat," she shrugs. "I think I know what I'm doing right now."

"On a scale of one to ten?" I question further.

"Uh... six," she decides.

"Okay," I breathe out in relief.

After a three-minute silence, she announces, "You're done!"

I get up and walk to her bathroom to see my reflection... and it's not bad. I really like it.

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[~Mavi~]

I sit on the bed, watching Rowan get up to see his reflection in the bathroom mirror. All he sees are the two braids I'm made on the two sides of his face. He has no clue about the other five tiny braids on the back of his head.

Then he walks back out, smiling, and I realize he didn't notice. I bite my lip to stop from laughing, and I yawn instead.

"I'm tired again. Why am I so tired?" I ask, and yawn again as the world spins, flopping backwards on my pillow.

"Are you sick?" Rowan asks.

"I don't think so," I frown, deciding to go to sleep again and curling up in a ball on the bed. Black spots dance on the edges of my vision. The world seems to spin again, but I don't say anything.